This invention relates generally to electronic circuits, and more particularly the invention relates to phase locked loops which employ transconductance amplifiers and charge pumps.
A phase locked loop (PLL) is commonly used in many electronics applications to maintain a fixed phase relationship between an input (e.g., clock) signal and a reference signal. A phase locked loop designed for a digital application typically includes a phase and/or frequency detector, a charge pump, a loop filter, a VCO, and an (optional) divider. The phase detector determines the phase differences between an input signal (i.e., an input data stream or an input clock) and a reference signal derived from the VCO, and generates a detector output signal indicative of the detected phase differences. The charge pump receives the detector output signal and generates a set of phase error signals (e.g., UP and DOWN). The loop filter filters the phase error signals to generate a control signal that is then used to adjust the frequency of the VCO such that the frequencies of the two signals provided to the phase detector are locked.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional phase locked loop 100. An input signal is provided to a phase detector 110 that also receives a reference signal from a divider 123. The input signal can be a clock signal, a data stream, or some other types of signal having phase and/or frequency information to which the phase locked loop can locked. The reference signal is typically a clock signal used to trigger the phase detector. Phase detector 110 generates an output signal PDOUT indicative of the timing differences (i.e., the phase differences) between the input signal and the reference signal. The PDOUT signal is provided to a charge pump 114 that generates an output signal CPOUT indicative of the detected phase error between the input and reference signals. In some designs, the PDOUT signal is logic high if the phase of the input signal is early (or late) relative to that of the reference signal, logic low if the phase of the input signal is late (or early) relative to that of the reference signal, and tri-stated for a period of time between clock edges.
The CPOUT signal is provided to a loop filter 120 that filters the signal with a particular transfer characteristic to generate a control signal. The control signal is then provided to, and used to control the frequency of, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) 122. VCO 122 generates an output clock CLK_OUT having a frequency that is locked to that of the input signal (when the phase locked loop is locked). The output clock is provided to divider 123 that divides the frequency of the output clock by a factor of N to generate the reference signal. Divider 123 is optional and not used when the frequency of the output clock is the same as that of the input signal (i.e., N=1). The control signal adjusts the frequency of VCO 122 such that the frequencies of the two signals provided to phase detector 110 are locked.
The charge pump typically requires an input signal having rail-to-rail signal swing and sharp edges. Signals meeting these requirements can be readily provided by a phase detector at (relatively) low operating frequencies. However, at higher frequencies (e.g., 2.488 GHz for a SONET OC-48 transceiver), it is difficult to design a phase detector having rail-to-rail signal swing and sharp edges. To provide the required signal characteristics, the phase detector would typically need to be designed using a combination of large die area and large amounts of bias current. Besides the design challenge for such phase detector, the rail-to-rail signal swing and sharp edges generate large amounts of noise that can degrade the performance of the phase locked loop and other nearby circuits.
Disclosed in application Ser. No. 09/540,243, supra, is a locked loop for use in a high frequency application such as an optical transceiver. As shown in FIG. 2, the locked loop includes a detector 110, a transconductance (gm) amplifier 124, a loop filter 120, and an oscillator 122. The detector (which can be a phase detector or a frequency detector, or combination of both) receives an input signal and a reference signal and provides a detector output signal indicative of the difference between the input and reference signals. The difference can be phase or frequency, etc., depending on the application. The gm amplifier receives and converts the detector output signal to a current signal. The loop filter receives and filters the current signal with a particular transfer function to provide a control signal. The oscillator receives the control signal and provides an oscillator signal (e.g., a clock) having a property (e.g., frequency) that is adjusted by the control signal. Resistor 132 and shunt capacitor 134 represent a second loop pole at a high frequency which is normally overlooked in circuit analysis.
Acquisition time (or settling time) of a PLL is inversely proportional to its bandwidth. In general, for a PLL with passive filter, the bandwidth, W0, can be expressed in terms of VCO gain, Kvco, the filter primary resistor, R1, and the gain of phase detector/charge pump block, K1 (FIG. 1).W0=K1*R1*Kvco 
In the case of gm based PLL (FIG. 2), this equation still applies where K1 represents the product of phase detector gain, Kpd, and gm cell's, gm. K1=Kpd*gm. Hence: W0=Kpd*gm*R1*Kvco.
Heretofore, to change the bandwidth, W0, switches have been needed to connect and disconnect appropriate resistors in order to change resistance R1 in the loop filter 120, as shown in FIG. 3 with switches 128 for fast lock and switches 130 for normal operation. However, these switches are connected to the most sensitive part of the phase lock loop, namely the VCO control voltage terminal. Any noise on this node translates directly to jitter at the output of the PLL. Each time these switches are turned on and off, charge is injected on this sensitive node. Further, since the resistance R1 depends on the resistivity parameter and Ron depends on MOSFET switch parameters, and since these parameters can vary from one wafer to another wafer independently, the worst case variation on the effective R1 is increased.
The present invention is directed to avoiding these limitations of the prior art phase lock loops.